As of last night's Trimble Local School Board of Education meeting, it was announced that five full-time employees will not be working for the district next year. One of which is the district's Superintendent Jack Loudin.
The only reason I am leaving is because my wife does not like the mountains and the hills
Loudin said. At her insistence to not move down here I've accepted a position 60 miles from my house in Michigan.
Though Loudin resigned from his position, the other four were fired as part of the district's personnel reduction plan to ease its financial strains.
Loudin suggested the layoffs that the board approved, which included an elementary school teacher, a special education teacher who works at the middle and high schools, an elementary special education teacher and the drug-free schools coordinator.
The district also eliminated 37 supplemental positions, which included most sports coaches, class advisers, the band director, student council advisers and the elementary music director.
The faculty layoffs were a surprise because faculty members had been cooperating with the board to avoid cutting positions.
We did take a pay freeze and we did make a contract in good face
said Linda Craddock, district's teachers' union president. What I'm offended by is that the contract is blatantly violated.
Board president Sherry Downs said she believed the district followed the contract. Loudin said the district consulted an attorney and would be willing to defend its decision.
I soul-searched over this vote tonight
school board member Marvin Shamhart said, and I hope we made the right decision for this district.
The district has been in fiscal emergency since 2001. While in fiscal emergency, the local school board loses control of the district to the state auditor's office, which has to approve of all of its financial transactions.
Loudin said the district already has turned in its five-year forecast, which included the staff reductions approved at the board meeting to the auditor's office. If the office approves the forecast, the district could be taken off of fiscal emergency.
It just goes to show that the state does not care to put a high value on education anywhere in this state
Shamhart said.
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